In a report presented at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, researchers provided some much-needed information that they hope will help couples using IVF to make more informed decisions about how best to use the reproductive technology.

Infertility increases with age, and while there are many reasons why couples have a hard time conceiving, one important contribution is the quality of the woman’s eggs. Because women are born with all of the eggs they use throughout their lifetime, the older the eggs are, the more vulnerable they are to developing genetic and other abnormalities that make them weaker candidates for getting fertilized by sperm and developing into a healthy baby.

But at what age does this process truly decline? Most reproductive data shows that live birth rates start to decline when the woman reaches 35, so Dr. Marta Devesa from the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Women’s…